In the first three months of 2010 alone, the House of Representatives spent $190,000 taxpayer dollars on bottled water. Some quick math tells me that Congress is spending about $760,000 of our tax dollars a year on bottled water.

That’s a lot of moneyâ€”money that could pay a lot of teachers’ salariesâ€”so that our elected officials can sip on a product that’s both unnecessary AND bad for the planet.

Bottled water is not safer or healthier than tap water, and often comes from the tap anyway. It’s up to a staggering 1,900 times more expensive than tap water, and the energy needed to produce the plastic is enough to fuel nearly 3 million cars for a year. Additionally, nearly SIXTY BILLION plastic bottles are discarded as litter each year, ending up in landfills, lakes, streams and in gargantuan garbage whirlpools found in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.More than 36,000 people are asking Congress to set an example for this nation and go bottled water-free. It makes absolutely no sense to waste taxpayer dollars on bottled water while these same elected officials are proposing massive cuts in government spending.

Many state and city governments have already phased out their bottled water purchases in this era of environmental and fiscal crises. The Congress of the United States should do the same.

The head of DC Water, the city’s water provider, has even offered to give members of Congress their own free reusable water bottle!

Let Washington know that you agree by signing this petition. It will take no more than 15 seconds and the more people who speak up, the more likely we will no longer have to fund an environmentally unfriendly and just plain stupid practice.